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Options menu Usability

Description

A menu is a window that presents a list of commands to the user. A menu is arranged into lines, known as menu items, each of which contains a text label. Menu provides a convinient way to navigate between different forms and views in a application. When a user selects a menu item, the appropriate command is invoked and depending on that command user can select different view or create new form. The Options menu is a menu list displayed in a pop-up window. It is activated by pressing the Options soft key. (Options is the default value of the left soft key.)

Example

Some guideline to design a good options menu are:

Menu should not cover whole screen of the application. Ideally it should not cover more than 70% screen of the application.

The maximum size is approximately the size of the standard main pane.

Good option menu example

Bad option menu example

The content on the screen outside the menu pop-up should be dimmed.

Good option menu example

Bad option menu example

Text is preferrable than icon in a menu item.

It should provide scrollbar if all item in a menu are not visible at a time.

Add sub-menu to item if it has additional additional choices to display.

Hide menu item if its functionality can not be used. for example no need to show delete menu item if list does not contain any item.

Use navigation key default action(s) to navigate between different menu item and sub-menu.

Provide Context-sensitive menu if required. Context-sensitive menus are secondary menus that are typically launched by pressing the Selection key (as opposed to the primary Options menu accessed via the left soft key). These menus are sensitive to the currently displayed view, and furthermore can be sensitive to the internal state of that view.

The Options menu always loops, making it easy to reach the end of the list.

Some guidelines for submenus are:

1. The number of items should be low, so that the user does not need to scroll in order to see all of them.
2. Only one submenu level is allowed, i.e., a submenu cannot contain another submenu.